


All Star

by oldmythologies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gratuitous Singing, M/M, Nightmares, Shiro (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Shiro (Voltron)-centric, Thunderstorms, goofy matt, hug shiro 2kalways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 05:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12052716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldmythologies/pseuds/oldmythologies
Summary: Matt wakes Shiro up from a nightmare the only way he knows how.A commission for @agapostemon





	All Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Agapostemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agapostemon/gifts).



The colors creeped in one by one, flooding in like splashes of watercolor on the black.

He couldn’t tell if he’d been anywhere else before, but then he was there. It started with the purple, an ache behind his eyes and a need to blink it away, back into the darkness that held him so carefully before.

Something slammed against the side of his head and then there was that red, the kind that seeped in through closed eyelids, at once the shade of flesh and not at all alive.

He didn’t know this place, he didn’t think; he wasn’t sure, but then again, he could never be sure. He’d lost the ability to be sure.

One more burst cracked against his skill and he remembered. Their symbol loomed up and up and up. He was so small against it. He braced himself, all too familiar with this next part.

His arms would freeze and the straps around his chest would tighten, tighten, and tighten, until there wasn’t enough room in his lungs for air.

It didn’t come.

His arms froze up, he couldn’t breathe, but it wasn’t the gunmetal restraints around him. He couldn’t breathe and he didn’t know _why_.

_Clap_ and there she was.

_Shiro!_ she shouted over the pounding of his own heartbeat. He read it on her lips more than he heard it. Something cut off the sound between them and he couldn’t hear anything but static and drums.

He tried to take a step forward, _god_ he tried, but his feet were nailed to the floor. He stared down at the blood seeping between his toes and knew that they’d always been nailed down.

_Crack_ went the drums.

He was looking up again, and her glasses were gone. She was gone. The gaze changed. His eyes stabbed into Shiro’s. His leg was drenched in blood, every drip on the frigid floor multiplying and echoing in Shiro’s ears like rain.

_You’re a monster you’re a monster you’re a monster,_ Matt’s voice a twisted sandpaper against his skin.

_I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,_ he tried to say over and over again, their voices overlapping into a Gregorian chant that echoed off the hollow walls of their cathedral.

_You’re a monster, I’m sorry_ , layering on top of each other until the wavelengths cancelled each other out and Shiro was left alone with just _I’m a monster_.

He was a monster and now the floor was nothing but their blood, drops turning into splashed into waves that threatened to toss him under, to drown him in iron.

And then, a song.

Shiro didn’t even know if he could call it a song, but Matt’s incantation changed.

“ _Hey now,_ ” he started in his just barely off key voice. Shiro’s own hymn refused to falter, but their harmony did.

_I’m_ “ _an all star…_ ”

What?

The blood on the ground drained back into the walls and Shiro’s own voice stopped. Matt gazed at him from an eternity away, his voice aching to drown out the drums that dictated his night.

“ _Get your game on, go play,_ ”

Shiro blinked, finally able to move, the nails holding him down melting back into the Earth, and he closed his eyes. He felt a familiar sting behind his eyes and the relief as tears escaped and steamed on his cheeks.

When the next crack threatened his head, Matt screeched over the sound.

“… _And all that glitters is_ goooOOOOooold…”

Shiro’s eyes were pried open.

It was blue, not purple.

His eyes still stung and his lungs couldn’t remember how to pull in the wet air, still wrapped up in chains that twisted their way up his throat. The song continued, quieter now.

“… _Well the years start coming and they don’t stop coming…_ ”

_Crack, clap_ and Shiro felt the chain tighten, tighten, and tighten, but the song grabbed on and pulled back with equal force, warred against the feeling that told him to close his eyes because none of this was real, it was never real, it wasn’t allowed to be real. It was the part of him that wanted to go back to go back to chanting, to get lost back against the wall and tense his muscles for whatever blow was coming next.

“… _You’ll never know if you don’t go, you’ll never shine if you don’t glow…”_

Shiro blinked.

He moved his mouth to ask if the apparition was real and if he was really singing the song from Shrek; his lips refused to close around the words.

Matt leaned forward, suddenly illuminated by a strike of lighting, crossed his arms on the edge of the bed that he knelt beside, and pillowed his head on them, blinking in the night. His eyelids seemed to stick to themselves every time, hooded and tired.

He sang the chorus one more time, yawning around the words and letting them fade into a hum as he watched Shiro. Then he stopped.

“I don’t know the rest of the words, but I can sing it again if you want. I haven’t seen Shrek in ages, we should do that.”

Shiro choked. “ _Matt._ ”

The thunder shook him, vibrated through his muscles and bones. They tried to pull him in even tighter.

The pittering of rain against the windows permeated the room as soon as the sky stopped splitting apart in his ears.

Matt plucked one of the hands from under him and reached out.

Shiro thought he wanted to flinch away, but for some reason he didn’t.

The hand that grabbed his wasn’t the frigid one of a ghost. It was warm, tender save for the callouses roughening just the pads of his fingers, the fingertips thats that brushed over his knuckles, over the scars that twisted his skin up into knots. They were engineer’s hands, he knew. They had been made into what they were by the details.

His mouth was filled with sand. He tried to swallow it down, but like most things, it got stuck in his throat.

“Want me to sing more? I’ve got some Disney up my sleeve if you need it.”

Shiro almost smiled. “I’m okay.”

Matt rolled his tired eyes, the lightning catching his exasperation.

“You’re a shitty liar.”

“I’m a great liar.”

Matt scoffed, but tightened his hold on Shiro’s hand when the thunder reached them, chasing the lightning.

“You know I can see through your bullshit.”

Shiro closed his eyes, breaking the careful balance of water in his eyes once more. He swallowed, and this time it worked.

“Yeah.”

Matt sighed and stood up to crawl back into bed next to Shiro.

“What was it about?”

“The usual.”

Matt got comfortable against the mountain of pillows they’d accumulated in the years since getting back to Earth. He pulled Shiro tight against his chest.

“When are you going to start listening to me,” Matt started.

“Probably never,” Shiro interrupted.

Shiro didn’t even need to be looking at him to see Matt roll his eyes. “You saved my life. My leg is fine. You’re a hero.”

Shiro leaned into Matt’s shirt, letting the familiarity take him. He breathed it in and the chains didn’t stop him. He didn’t respond for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” he told the fabric.

The arms around him tightened but refused to constrict.

“You don’t need to be.”

“Too bad.” He was glad that his voice was muffled. It helped hide the tremor in his words.

Matt hummed down into Shiro’s hair in harmony with the rain.

“One day I’ll convince you. You’re an all star.”

Shiro snorted and nuzzled in, letting his eyes fall closed against Matt’s shoulder.

“I’m an all star.”

**Author's Note:**

> A whole lot of my writing goes to tumblr and never makes it over, so check it out -> [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


End file.
